On February 24, Walter E. Ellis, age 50, of Milwaukee, was convicted of choking to death seven women during a 21-year killing spree from 1986 to 2007. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors said they may yet tie Ellis to two or more unsolved slayings. Ellis was convicted after he pleaded no contest to charges of first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree murder. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty and Judge Dennis Cimpl sentenced him to seven consecutive life sentences for the slayings. Ellis was arrested in 2009 after police matched his DNA to semen samples found on six victims and a blood sample on a can of pepper spray discovered at the scene of the seventh slaying.